'This curious collection of modern short stories...deals with men...and sometimes women...who drift about in ones and twos. They are not shiftless, rootless people; on the contrary, freedom and independence, honesty and pride are often their ruling virtues. For the most part, they just haven't found a place to settle down; they are natural born anchorites, and it does not matter that their passing stories are set in country towns or red desert. Each man is to himself an island. D'Arcy Niland has found his setting in strange and varied places on the Australian continent: but the people are our people, sad, wry and comical.' (Source: 1966 edition)
